Welcome to "An Inch To The Left", the sequel to "The Unlikely Pair"
This story will largely be a continuation of TUP, with Percy Weasley as the main character. I'm hoping to explore his healing and personal growth alongside his rebuilding of his relationship with his family, as well as the magical UK's rebuilding and growth after the end of the final battle.
The Unlikely Pair, The Recap (Spoilers)
Hermione and Percy became friends early on in "Chamber of Secrets". They remained friends as Percy had a falling out with his family and then joined the Order of the Phoenix secretly. Through letters, Hermione and Percy continued their friendship all the way through Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. Around Christmas time in the Deathly Hallows, Hermione and Percy mutually realize that their feelings toward each other have changed from friendship to romance. The largest plot points of the 7 books remained largely unchanged; however, if you are bad at making inferences, I would suggest you read TUP in its entirety.
Immediately after Voldemort was defeated, Hermione and Percy inadvertently outed their secret friendship and relationship to the Weasleys by kissing in front of all of them. When all was said and done, they returned to Percy's flat together, as Hermione's parents are in Australia and Hermione no longer has a home.
The Unlikely Pair, end of the final chapter
"Can we go home?" Hermione asked. He hadn't gotten a good look at her before, but now he could see. Her hair was partially singed, chunks falling out of her braid. She had a black eye, and she was covered in dirt and a bit of blood he was sure was Fred's. She was the most beautiful girl he'd seen in his life.
"Yes, let's go home," Hermione took hold of his arm snuggly, her small hands firmly grasping his elbow and bicep. He twisted, and they disappeared together.
Immediately After The End Of The Final Battle
They landed in Percy's living room together. It looked exactly the way it had when Percy had left not 24 hours ago. But it felt like a totally different place. It was only after Hermione let go of his elbow that Percy realized it wasn't that his flat had changed. He had changed. The last day, the battle, everything had changed him. He'd seen so many people fighting for their lives. He'd patched them up. He'd watched Harry come back from the dead right in front of everyone. He'd watched the darkest wizard of their time fall.
"CROOKSHANKS!" Hermione's yell startled him so badly that he automatically reached for his wand. But there was no reason to fear. Hermione had sunk to her knees, and her large, orange half-cat was licking every inch of her face, purring loudly all the while. Juno, Percy's half-crup puppy, came running in from the other room, and Percy joined Hermione on the floor, wrapping an arm around her back as the animals welcomed her home. Even Percy's own owl Hermes, though he stayed on his perch, looked happy to see her. Or, as happy as an owl can look.
Hermione turned to look at Percy, and for a moment, Percy thought she would kiss him. Instead, she smiled, and leaned her head against his shoulder.
That was just as nice, just having her there. Percy was honestly still a little amazed that after everything, they both ended up alive, and together.
Two loud cracks startled Hermione and Percy. She screamed and crumpled to the floor in a protective position. He stood immediately and thrust his wand at the sound, a defensive spell caught in his throat.
But it was just Luna and Dean, both covered in soot and sweat. They'd obviously apparated straight into Percy's flat, come back to their temporary home in the camping tent in Percy's study after their rescue from Malfoy Manor.
Luna and Dean looked just as startled at Hermione's scream. For a moment, no one moved.
"Sorry," Luna spoke first, "I suppose we're all a little on edge, still,"
"No, it's okay," Percy said, "I should have been expecting you both," He stowed his wand and helped Hermione to her feet, "I'm glad to see you both are okay,"
"Us, too," Dean chimed in.
Percy glanced out the window and saw the sun shining in. Was it really only mid-morning? Voldemort was dead and they were home at last...and it wasn't even noon yet? Percy glanced back over at Dean, who'd taken a seat on the chair nearest him. Dean looked just about dead on his feet. It was obvious that he was still healing from months of capture and starvation.
Speaking of starvation…
Simultaneously, Percy's, Hermione's, Luna's, and Dean's stomachs all growled. They all chuckled.
"Lunch, everyone?" Percy offered.
Between the four of them, it was easy to heat up some soup, toss a salad, and toast a few sandwiches. They crowded around Percy's small kitchen table and the food was gone within minutes. Percy realized that none of them had had a proper meal since lunch yesterday.
"I'm going to grab a quick shower in the tent," said Dean, when they were finished, "And then it's all yours, Luna,"
"That's fine," Luna smiled. Crookshanks had crawled into her lap, and though Luna looked as though she was in need of a nap, she didn't seem to want to move.
"Do you mind if I go ahead and take a shower in your bathroom?" Hermione asked Percy.
"Go ahead. All of the belongings you left here are in the boxes in my room, including some of your soaps, I think," Hermione smiled, squeezed his shoulder, and left the room.
About an hour later, all four of them were showered and dressed in clean clothes, and their collective dirty laundry from the day before was loaded into the washer. Luna had made a pot of tea and assembled some biscuits on a plate. This was for Dean's benefit more than anyone else's, but Percy took comfort in holding a mug of tea as they began discussing plans.
Percy knew that Luna didn't have a home to go back to anymore. Her home had been destroyed around Christmastime and her father had been found dead in the wee hours of this morning. He'd grown up over the hill from the Lovegoods all his life, and was sad for Luna's losses.
Dean's situation was just as complicated. His muggle mother and sisters had been relocated with the refugee program that Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Viktor, and the Lupins had run. They and hundreds of other muggle family members would need to be returned to the UK.
"Both of you are welcome to stay as long as you need," Percy assured them, "You're no trouble to host, and I'm happy to have you," 'Happy' might have been stretching the truth just a tad, but Percy really didn't mind hosting either of them for as long as they needed. Maybe it was a little bit of his mum's genes showing in him, but there was always room in Percy's home for people who needed it.
"Thank you," Luna said, "Tomorrow I'm going to see about my father's arrangements, and then I'll make a decision. The Scamanders have been after me to visit for a while now, and I think it would do me some good to get away."
"I'm not sure where my family is at right now, and they had to give up their flat when they moved," Dean spoke up.
"I'll connect you with my brother Charlie, he'll be able to get you more information about where they are," Dean nodded and took a small bite of a chocolate biscuit. Crookshanks moved from Hermione's lap over to Luna, who petted the animal absently.
Later that afternoon, Percy helped Hermione empty out the contents of her beaded bag. Percy was inwardly pleased that he'd been the one to give her the bag in the first place, but it was so beat up and worn out and dirty now that he wouldn't blame her if she chose to throw it away.
Out of the bag came a dozen or so books, more dirty laundry from both Hermione, Harry, and Ron, a random collection of non-perishable grocery items, potion ingredients, muggle medical supplies, and more. By the time Hermione turned the bag upside down and shook it to be sure it was completely empty, most of Percy's bedroom floor was covered in the bag's contents.
All of the clothing went into a pile to be washed, save a few items that went straight into a garbage bag. All of the food items went into Percy's pantry, all of the potion ingredients went into his own potion stores. The books went onto Percy's bookshelf, and so forth. Hermione integrated their belongings without giving it a second thought. Once Percy figured out what she was doing, he began to help, gathering the medical supplies and placing them in his own first aid kit, and lining up her toiletries next to his in the bathroom.
Finally, there was only a small collection of items left. Percy was pleased that he recognized several of them.
"I gave you those, didn't I?" He gestured to a tiny dragon figurine, a hair barrette, a bracelet, and a candle in a holder.
"You did, yeah," she smiled shyly, "I was glad to have them, while we were traveling,"
"I'm glad you kept them," he picked up the dragon. Its enchantments had faded a bit since his 6th year at Hogwarts, but it still turned a slow circle on his hand and curled up in a ball on his palm. Hermione lit the candle with the tip of her wand.
"There's so much work to be done," Hermione mused, after a few minutes of quiet.
"Starting tomorrow, Kingsley, Dad, Alicia, and I are going to start rebuilding the ministry,"
"What are you starting with?"
"Well, Alicia is a genius,"
"Well spotted," Hermione smiled
"She basically organized a coup. She vetted enough Wizengamot members to hold an emergency session yesterday evening, where we passed a bundle of new laws to restructure the ministry and provide strict guidance for "Terrorism" and other hate crimes.
"But the people don't know about them yet. There are a whole bunch of procedures in place now that weren't before, and we lifted a lot of the employee eligibility restrictions as well. Now we've got to inform the Ministry's employees of the changes and open up the job hiring process so we can rebuild our staff,"
"And you need to hire them and teach them all of the new policies so that they can implement and enforce them," Hermione nodded.
"I should see if Fleur wants to come in tomorrow morning and help me, she knows a great deal about the laws that we've passed. She helped me author some of them," Percy mused, "You know, I could even hire her officially. Bill, too, he'd be great and I know he was looking to get out of Gringotts before all this happened,"
"I'm sure they would do it, why don't you floo over and ask?" Hermione suggested.
"I'll do that right now," Percy rose and headed into the living room, tossed a bit of floo powder into the fireplace and called out "Shell Cottage!" before poking his head in.
Unfortunately, the very first thing he saw when his head popped into the Shell Cottage living room was a very, very naked Bill and an equally nude Fleur wrapped around each other on the couch. Both of them were startled, and Bill grabbed for the afghan over the back of the sofa, throwing it over both of them.
"Ah! Sorry! I just had a question for you," He really, really wished he hadn't wanted to call them right this second, but it was too late now.
"A little busy, Percy,"
"I can see that," Percy quipped before he could stop himself. Bill grabbed for a pair of boxers that were on the floor, and Percy squeezed his eyes shut long enough for his brother to get decent.
"Well, what do you need?" Bill asked.
"I wanted to ask you and Fleur if you want to work for me at the ministry, starting tomorrow."
"We accept," Fleur said from under the blanket on the sofa, "Tomorrow morning, eight o'clock?"
"Eight o'clock," Percy confirmed, "I'll have the paperwork ready for you both. See you tomorrow."
"We will see you then," Fleur confirmed. Percy made a hasty exit out of the floo.
"Why are you blushing?" Hermione asked, having joined him.
"Bill and Fleur were...busy...when I poked my head in just now,"
"Busy?" Hermione giggled knowingly. She stood and inclined her head toward the kitchen. "Tea?"
"That would be great,"
Charlie popped by just after tea time, floo-calling over to see if anyone was home, and then stepping through the fire to appear in the sitting room.
"In case you were wondering, I would not recommend going over to see Bill and Fleur just now," Charlie said, grinning sheepishly, "I got a bit of an eyeful when I tried to pop over just now,"
"So did I, earlier today," Percy chuckled, "Are they still at it?"
"I suppose they are," While Percy relished the light-hearted brotherly camaraderie, he wasn't sure how to transition out of joking about their older brother's apparently robust sex life into asking what Charlie needed. Thankfully, Charlie jumped right in.
"I just got back from seeing Fred at the hospital,"
"Oh, how is he?" Percy felt a little guilty, but he'd almost forgotten that Fred had been injured. Years of deliberately trying to forget he had siblings out of guilt had resulted in a reflex he knew he'd have a hard time shaking.
"He'll be okay. The healers did all the fixing they could, and he's been sedated to give his body and brain time to heal. They want to give him a few days to let the potions do their job before they lighten the sedation and see if they can wake him up,"
"Oh, good,"
"We're all meeting up at about 7pm tomorrow night to go visit and hear from the healers," Charlie said, "You and Hermione should come,"
"I should do what?" Hermione asked. She was seated nearby, but apparently hadn't been listening.
"Come see Fred with me and Percy tomorrow night at 7 o'clock in St. Mungo's,"
"Oh, of course," Hermione agreed.
"Good. I'll see you both tomorrow then. I'm taking an international portkey to Romania so I can start letting all of the muggle families know what's happened,"
"I'm glad you and Viktor are taking care of that,"
"I'm sure you are, Mr. 'I'm going to rebuild the entire country from scratch in a day while undercover'," Charlie teased, "Mum and Andi Tonks have been working non-stop to get all of the Hogwarts kids home or in foster care placements, but they chased Dad home and said that he had to get ready for tomorrow, so he's been hidden in his shed all afternoon trying to plan. 'Got a nation to rebuild', he said," Charlie rolled his eyes, but smiled.
"I think we're all going to be putting in a lot of hours on that in the next couple of months," Percy agreed. Dean appeared, and Percy remembered.
"Dean, this is my brother Charlie, the one I was telling you about," Dean and Charlie shook hands, "Charlie, the Muggle Relocation program had rehoused his mum and sisters, the Thomas family, do you think you could chat with Dean a bit about all of that?"
"Yeah, sure," Charlie nodded at Dean, "Let's go into the study, shall we?"
Perhaps half an hour later, Charlie reappeared.
"Dean decided he'd lay down for a bit, and I'd best be off," Charlie pulled Percy into a brief hug, and then did the same for Hermione, "See you later. Stay safe, brother…" The familiar salutation trailed off, as the three of them looked at each other, "I guess I don't need to say that anymore, do I?"
"I suppose not," Percy smiled, and Charlie exited with a grin on his face.
Percy was desperately trying to stay awake to get to bed at a normal time, but by the time early evening rolled around, all four of them were struggling to keep their eyes open. Dean whipped them up a quick stir-fry dinner before he and Luna turned in for the night. Hermione was yawning and didn't at all protest when Percy suggested that they go to bed as well. He'd made his own bed with clean sheets for her and brought the camp bed and put it in the corner for himself. Hermione tried to protest, but he insisted that she take the real bed with the comfortable mattress. Dean and Luna were sleeping in Percy's camping tent in the study as they had been for the last few days.
Hermione sat on the edge of his bed in her pajamas, braiding her hair down her back. He sat beside her.
"Hermione," he said out loud, "I'm really glad you're back,"
"Me too," she replied, "I'm really glad to be here with you, finally," she smiled tiredly, "It's been a really long last few months,"
"I know," she'd told him so many details about her life on the run, but the girl sitting beside him had clearly been through circles of hell that he couldn't describe, "I'm so proud of you,"
"Thank you. I'm proud of you, too," she finished plaiting her hair and turned to sit cross-legged, facing him, "I had a question for you,"
"What?"
"Can I come to the ministry with you, tomorrow?" The question honestly didn't surprise him.
"Of course," he said. "We'll be glad to have you,"
"Oh, good! Thank you," she leaned in, and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Wake me up when you get up, tomorrow," Juno padded into the bedroom just then and hopped up onto the bed at Hermione's knee.
"I will. Good night, Hermione," Percy said. He extinguished the lights and crawled into the camp bed, unable to fight the exhaustion any longer.
His clock showed midnight when he awoke to the sound of Hermione coughing. He didn't think much of it, listening to the soft sound of her summoning a glass and filling it with water. He was back to sleep before long. At 3:30am, he woke up to the sound of Hermione crying, trying and failing to muffle it in her pillow. From the dim light from the streetlight outside, he could see Juno, licking Hermione's hand as her body shook.
He didn't know what to do, and was on the verge of asking her if she needed anything, when she sniffled, took in a deep, shuddering breath, coughed twice, rolled over, and settled back in to sleep.
It took Percy a long time to fall back asleep after that.